Campana Brothers: fun in the John Madejski garden

Everyday 'stuff' from rope, rubber hose and tissues to carpet fragments and soft toys are the raw materials in the work of Humberto and Fernando Campana, giving their work a carnivalesque exuberance.

The Campanas draw their inspiration from the chaotic urban vibrancy and lush natural landscape of ther native Brazil. Working from a perspective of ingenuity and thrift in the face of scarce technological resources, their creations offer a fresh, new, sometimes kitsch and always distinctly Brazilian antidote to European design.

In the summer of 2007, the V&A commissioned Humberto and Fernando to create an150th anniversary installation featuring a ‘experimental passage’, and specially designed seats for the John Madejski Garden. In this film you can hear the Campanas explain how they used plastic and fabric cutoffs to represent Brazil’s biggest aquatic flower and the best way to have fun with bamboo.